Obama's U.N. pick wins support of 3 GOP senators

Jul. 16, 2013
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Samantha Power, President Obama's nominee to be the next United Nations ambassador, says history will judge the U.N. Security Council harshly for its lack of action on the conflict in Syria. / Charles Dharapak, AP

by Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY

by Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY

President Obama's pick to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has won the support of several key Republicans and a long list of foreign policy luminaries ahead of her confirmation hearing scheduled for Wednesday

Samantha Power, a former foreign policy adviser to Obama who made a name for herself in foreign policy circles and won a Pulitzer Prize for her 2002 book A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, faced a smattering of opposition from conservative groups after Obama announced her nomination last month.

Three GOP senators on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee - John McCain and Jeff Flake, both of Arizona, and James Risch of Idaho - suggested they will back Power, according to a report in The Hill.

"I think she's very well qualified and certainly will support her nomination," McCain told The Hill. "I urge some speed."

And on Tuesday, more than two dozen foreign policy and pro-Israel luminaries sent a letter to Sen. Robert Menendez, the Democratic chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, and Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the committee, urging her confirmation.

Among the signatories of the letter were several high profile conservatives who served in the George W. Bush administration, including Paul Wolfowitz, a former deputy Defense secretary; Michael Chertoff, a former Homeland Security secretary and chairman of the Committee on Conscience at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council; and Elliot Abrams, a former assistant secretary of State for international organization affairs.

"In short, Samantha Power is precisely the sort of tireless advocate for American values and interests that we need at the United Nations now," the group wrote.

If confirmed, Power would replace Susan Rice, who was named national security adviser to Obama in June.

Among people critical when Obama announced the nomination was Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. He called the choice "deeply troubling" and charged that Power has been "sharply critical of our nation's strong support of Israel."

Her critics have pointed to comments that she made in a 2002 interview about how she would suggest the U.S. respond to a hypothetical genocide situation in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

"What we need is a willingness to actually put something on the line in the service of helping the situation," Power said in a long interview with University of California-Berkeley professor Harry Kreisler. "And putting something on the line might mean alienating a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import."

Several pro-Israeli groups and prominent Jewish leaders have come to Power's defense. Harvard law scholar Alan Dershowitz and Abraham Foxman, the national director of Anti-Defamation League, have endorsed her nomination. And Israel's Ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, told the New York Times that Power "cares deeply" about issues related to Israel's security.